Originally Posted by
MikeyZBT
Sorry, but just for clarification, does this mean a DL Elite will get put on the upgrade list on ALL Northwest flights or only those that are code-share flights?
Is there a way to tell before you buy the flight on either DL.com or NWA.com that the flight is a code-share?
Lastly, does this all mean that for a DL-Elite (like myself) we should only be buying Northwest flights via DL.com and not on NWA.com?
Thanks.
It's quite obvious from the announcements that this has nothing to do with codeshares. Also quite obvious if you look at nwa.com for how the current NW/CO upgrades work.
If you buy a NW flight through any booking vehicle whatsover (other than an "opaque" channel like name-your-own-price part of Priceline) and put your Medallion-level DL# in it (which has been possible for years at nwa.com), you as a DL elite will be included in NW's EUA (Elite Upgrade Automation) process.
If you buy a DL flight through any booking vehicle whatsover (again excluding an opaque channel) and put your Elite NW# in the reservation (which will be possible at Delta.com as of Monday), you as a NW elite will be included in DL's EUA process.
You don't have to buy the flight from either delta.com or nwa.com. You don't have to have the "other" airline's code on it. The comment about the code in the original announcement was about how delta will be showing upgrade inventory buckets for the codeshares on NW. It was not saying that the only way to get upgraded was to buy the flights under the codeshare#.
Go buy it on Orbitz if you want. In fact, you're a lot more likely to find DL coded flights on NW metal showing up on Orbitz than you will on either delta.com or nwa.com. But you don't need the codeshare anyhow.
As to order: Plats are Plats, Golds are Golds, Silvers are Silvers. All Plats get upgraded before any Golds and all Golds before any Silvers. That's entirely fair, if you can realize that the concept here is to "treat the other's elites like our own". Especially given that in a couple of months there is only going to be Delta (in terms of ownership of both airlines).
It would be horribly unfair if an NW Plat was behind a DL Silver for an upgrade on a DL flight. That NW Plat has shown more loyalty to the new combined company by flying at least 75K on what is going to be the new combined company, than has the "native" DL Silver who flew only 25K even if it was all on DL.
If DL and NW were not merging, then there might have been a valid case for "All DL before any NW" - but even there, that wouldn't match up to the model being copied from the NW/CO partnership. It's unclear if CO Plat comes behind NW Plat on NW, but it is clear that All Plat from upgradeable programs come ahead of All Gold.